Cancer expert doubts claims about prostate cancer trial

doi:10.1136/bmj.a979

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Andrew Cole

¹London

A leading clinical oncologist has raised questions about claims that a new drug could treat as many as 80% of men diagnosed as having the most aggressive and previously drug resistant form of prostate cancer.

The results of the phase I clinical trial by the Institute of Cancer Research and the Royal Marsden Hospital, showed significant tumour shrinkage and big falls in prostate specific antigen (PSA) concentrations in most of the 21 men with advanced prostate cancer who received the drug abiraterone acetate (Journal of Clinical Oncology 2008 Jul 21; doi: 10.1200/JCO.2007.15.9749).

But Nick James, professor of clinical oncology at Birmingham University, said that it was far …